LETTER TO EDUCATORS
The Museum of Early Trades & Crafts is a non-profit educational institution that
explores and presents the history and life ways of ordinary 18th and 19th century
Americans through its collection, presentations, and exhibitions of hand tools and
artifacts. School programs comprise an important part of our educational mission and
are in full alignment with current Core Curriculum Standards.
We are confident that you and your students will enjoy the
Museum’s presentation of EARLY AMERICAN SCHOOLHOUSE. We have assembled
this educational packet to help you integrate our presentation with learning activities
in your classroom. The packet is not intended to be a set of sequential tasks; rather, it
presents additional possibilities. Mix and match, use what interests you, and come up
with your own ideas. You may make copies of the pages of this document for
classroom use.
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions about these materials
or any ideas about how to improve the packet or the Museum presentation.
Meg Wastie
Curator of Education
973-377-2982, x12
[email protected]
OVERVIEW & PROGRAM OBJECTIVES: EARLY AMERICAN SCHOOLHOUSE
PROGRAM OVERVIEW
Discover what it was like to be a student attending a one-room schoolhouse in Early American times.
Students will role-play a day at school, arriving with such “school supplies” as buckets and logs, in
addition to more traditional items like books and slates. They will learn about the lessons taught in school
and the very different rules for both students and teachers during that time. Students will make a
traditional horn book, and write on it with quill pens (available for purchase to take home).
PROGRAM OBJECTIVES
Students will demonstrate ability to:
1. Examine and identify a series of school-based artifacts from the early United States by looking at
objects from the Museum’s permanent collection.
2. Compare and contrast the one-room schoolhouse of the 18th and 19th centuries with schools of today in
terms of classroom environment, rules & regulations, curriculum, supplies & necessities.
3. Discuss the importance of schools and schooling for people of all generations.
EARLY AMERICAN SCHOOLHOUSE
Suggested Pre-Visit Activity
Objective: Students will demonstrate an ability to identify rules & regulations and their importance.
Rules are important for schools, organizations, and even families. Rules help people know the proper way
to behave with each other.
1. Make a list of the rules that your school has.
2. Make a list of new or different rules that you would like your school to have.
3. Do you think the rules were similar during the days of the one-room schoolhouse in the 18th and 19th
centuries? How might they have been similar? How might they have been different?
EARLY AMERICAN SCHOOLHOUSE
Suggested Post-Visit Activity
MAKING WALNUT SHELL INK
Objective: Students will demonstrate an ability to create an old-fashioned natural-ingredient substance
that is today mass-produced.
Much like students of today, students in Early American times were expected to bring their own paper
and writing utensils to school. In the 18th and 19th centuries, however, ink was not readily available. If it
was purchased, it was very expensive. It was usually made at home by the students and their families.
Here is a “recipe” you can follow to make your own ink, and then use it to write with a quill pen. Quill
pens that were used with the ink were plucked from white geese and cut on an angle at the bottom with a
“pen knife,” a word that we still use today to refer to small knives that are used for carving and whittling.
Materials:
Paper bag
Hammer
Small saucepan
Measuring cup & teaspoon
Cheesecloth or Strainer
Small containers with covers
4 empty walnut shells
1 cup water
½ tsp. salt
1 tsp. vinegar
Directions:
Using a hammer, crush the shells in a paper bag. Put the crushed shells into a saucepan and add water.
When the water is boiling, add the salt and vinegar. Turn down the heat and simmer for 15 minutes. To
remove the pieces of shell, strain the ink through a strainer or a piece of cheesecloth over a container.
Pour ink into small containers that have tight covers.
CORE
STANDARD
READING
1
2
What was
school like
for children
in the 19th
century?
Role-play going
to school with
19th century
school supplies
Relate some
learning styles to
students’ rotelearning
activities &
rhymes (i.e. “30
days has
September…”
“Every Good Boy
Does Fine” etc.
WRITING
[Pre & Post
lesson]
Defend the
reasons for
specific
school rules
SPEAKING &
LISTENING
What was
school like
for children
in the 19th
century?
Role-play going
to school with
19th century
school supplies
Role-play
Use correct
writing rules
when quill
writing in horn
book
LANGUAGE
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
N/A
Partial list:
Hornbook
Penmanship
Quill
Primer
School texts:
Primers
McGuffie
Reader
“Marmaduke
Multiplys”
[sic]
Benjamin
Franklin’s
Poor
Richard’s
Almanac
Selected
quotes
N/A
Explain why
certain school
practices
were so
different from
today
Compare &
contrast school
rules for
students and
school rules for
teachers then &
now
Oral recitation
of school rules
[Follow-up] Write
a narrative
through the
persona of a child
in an early
American
schoolroom
Review &
reinforce
penmanship
skills through
analysis of
script & use of
quill pen
Compare/contrast
school rules for
students & for
teachers then &
now
Oral
recitation of
19th century
school rules
Read &
explain
meanings of
selected
quotes from
Poor
Richard’s
Almanac
Specialized
vocabulary
[see above]
Museum
artifacts:
Primers
McGuffie
Reader
“Marmaduke
Multiplys”[sic]
Other school
supplies
Benjamin
Franklin’s
Poor
Richard’s
Almanac
Selected
quotes
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Interpret 18th
century language
in Franklin
quotes
MUSEUM OF EARLY TRADES & CRAFTS, MADISON, NJ
COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS
EARLY AMERICAN SCHOOLHOUSE – GRADES 2 - 5